Because I am very familiar with Facebook and Twitter, I chose to explore Edmodo. I have heard a lot about it from other teachers, but felt that my Wikispace probably served some of the same purposes, so had never really given it a serious look.
According to the About Edmodo page on the Edmodo site, it “is a free and secure social learning network for teachers, students and schools. Edmodo provides classrooms a safe and easy way to connect and collaborate, offering a real-time platform to exchange ideas, share content, and access homework, grades and school notices.”
Because it is FREE, I signed up for an account so that I could see how easy or difficult it is to use. The first thing that I noticed about the Edmodo page, is how much it resembles a Facebook page. This would be very appealing to my young students. They are not yet 13, so technically cannot have Facebook accounts. Plus, due to a history of unsafe behaviors associated with their individual mental health issues, my students are restricted from using the Internet and social networking sites outside of school, and without direct supervision.
Edmodo offers some built in security features. Teachers establish the class groups and provide the students with a class code that they need to use in order to read or participate in the class group. The teacher acts as administrator, and can receive notifications whenever a student posts. Additionally, students cannot have private conversations with each other, and if a student misuses the Edmodo class platform, the teacher can reduce their privilege to “Read Only.”
Educator, Daniel Rothrock, posted on StudyBlue that he uses Edmodo for direct, communication, folder management, and for collaboration and feedback. Edmodo provides a homebase where teachers can communicate with students regarding assignments, grades, and upcoming class events. Teachers can also create folders of resources, notes, presentations, class handouts, organizers, and even exemplars of student work. Collaboration opportunities exist when teachers post thoughtful discussion prompts and when students ask questions and can receive answers and feedback from peers and from their teacher. Additionally, Edmodo allows teachers to embed quizzes and polls, and the Edmodo mobile app means that teachers can monitor posts and questions from any location.
I could see myself using Edmodo to manage my class, and also as way of teaching my students how to interact on the Web respectfully. While my students live and attend school in a strictly supervised environment, they will hopefully, not be in this setting forever. It will help them to have some safe practice opportunities in which to develop and practice positive social web behaviors.
Since I have used all three of the suggested creative sites (GlogsterEdu, VoiceThread, and Prezi) both as presentation tools to teach a topic, and also for my students to create their own projects and presentations, I searched for a different site to explore. While looking on http://cooltoolsforschools.wikispaces.com, I found the Myths and Legends Story Creator site.
This year we study ancient civilizations. We study the myths and heroes associated with each civilization. Additionally, as part of our ELA standards we study myths and legends. Students can read from the Myths and Legends library and use the interactive Myth Map to see where the stories are from, or they can read the published original myths of other students.
Once a teacher sets up a class and assigns students individual usernames and passwords, the site gives students the opportunity to compose their own digital myths and legends using a storyboard or a frame-by-frame sequence. Students can use the provided gallery of images and animations to illustrate their stories, or they can upload pictures from the web, their own photos or their own original artwork. Of particular interest to me, is that even my students, who struggle to write, can keep the oral tradition alive by recording themselves telling the story.
This FREE site allows students to print their written stories, or to submit them for review online. Teachers review the stories and can message feedback to the student. Students can also submit their myths and legends to publish on the site and receive feedback from other readers. The Teacher Resource Center offers lesson ideas and tutorials for teachers and students to use in the classroom and to improve student compositions. I think that my students will enjoy using this digital myth creation site, and I appreciate the chance for my students to safely publish their original compositions.
The final site that I explored and evaluated for use in my classroom is the curation site, Symbaloo. Pinterest is very popular right now. Every time I look at Facebook, someone has pinned something new in Pinterest, so I have looked at it a few times. For me, because I am not a super visual person, Pinterest boards can appear visually cluttered and overwhelming. Symbaloo, on the other hand is visually organized, but it combines words, simple symbols, and color-coding.
http://symbaloo.appappeal.com/ describes Symbaloo as a “customizable start page tool that lets users add all their most important links in a format that is easy to use.” I can see myself, as a teacher, using SymbalooEDU, to compile all of the content sites that I have bookmarked in folders on our favorites bar into a class webmix. I could organize the symbol/word buttons by assigning each to a designated subject area of the grid and color-code each. When students click on any one of the buttons it will take them directly to one of my teacher approved websites. I can then make SymbalooEDU the default start page on our class computers to improve the accessibility of the webmix.
I think that while this curation system is appealing to me, it will be easy for my students to use, and might remind them of the homescreen on a smartphone or tablet. While I cannot let my students randomly explore the Internet for their own favorite websites, I can seek their opinions on whether or not a website should be added to our Symbaloo class webmix, and I can also let the students help to group and organize the buttons in a way that makes sense to the users—to the class.
While I want to make a class webmix with acceptable student site-links, I also plan to make webmixes for myself. For example, a webmix of teacher web tools and widgets that I use as resources for my lessons and workshops, or a disability resources webmix. Symbaloo’s mobile app allows for me to add to or access webmixes even when I am out and about. I have used bookmarking sites before like diigo and delicious, but I like the look and the ease of use of Symbaloo.
Edmodo http://www.edmodo.com/
Legends and Myths http://myths.e2bn.org/
Legends and Myths Teacher Resource Center http://myths.e2bn.org/teachers/#general
Study Blue http://www.studyblue.com/about/2011/09/an-educator%E2%80%99s-virtual-classroom-edmodo-style/
SymbalooEDU http://www.symbalooedu.com/
According to the About Edmodo page on the Edmodo site, it “is a free and secure social learning network for teachers, students and schools. Edmodo provides classrooms a safe and easy way to connect and collaborate, offering a real-time platform to exchange ideas, share content, and access homework, grades and school notices.”
Because it is FREE, I signed up for an account so that I could see how easy or difficult it is to use. The first thing that I noticed about the Edmodo page, is how much it resembles a Facebook page. This would be very appealing to my young students. They are not yet 13, so technically cannot have Facebook accounts. Plus, due to a history of unsafe behaviors associated with their individual mental health issues, my students are restricted from using the Internet and social networking sites outside of school, and without direct supervision.
Edmodo offers some built in security features. Teachers establish the class groups and provide the students with a class code that they need to use in order to read or participate in the class group. The teacher acts as administrator, and can receive notifications whenever a student posts. Additionally, students cannot have private conversations with each other, and if a student misuses the Edmodo class platform, the teacher can reduce their privilege to “Read Only.”
Educator, Daniel Rothrock, posted on StudyBlue that he uses Edmodo for direct, communication, folder management, and for collaboration and feedback. Edmodo provides a homebase where teachers can communicate with students regarding assignments, grades, and upcoming class events. Teachers can also create folders of resources, notes, presentations, class handouts, organizers, and even exemplars of student work. Collaboration opportunities exist when teachers post thoughtful discussion prompts and when students ask questions and can receive answers and feedback from peers and from their teacher. Additionally, Edmodo allows teachers to embed quizzes and polls, and the Edmodo mobile app means that teachers can monitor posts and questions from any location.
I could see myself using Edmodo to manage my class, and also as way of teaching my students how to interact on the Web respectfully. While my students live and attend school in a strictly supervised environment, they will hopefully, not be in this setting forever. It will help them to have some safe practice opportunities in which to develop and practice positive social web behaviors.
Since I have used all three of the suggested creative sites (GlogsterEdu, VoiceThread, and Prezi) both as presentation tools to teach a topic, and also for my students to create their own projects and presentations, I searched for a different site to explore. While looking on http://cooltoolsforschools.wikispaces.com, I found the Myths and Legends Story Creator site.
This year we study ancient civilizations. We study the myths and heroes associated with each civilization. Additionally, as part of our ELA standards we study myths and legends. Students can read from the Myths and Legends library and use the interactive Myth Map to see where the stories are from, or they can read the published original myths of other students.
Once a teacher sets up a class and assigns students individual usernames and passwords, the site gives students the opportunity to compose their own digital myths and legends using a storyboard or a frame-by-frame sequence. Students can use the provided gallery of images and animations to illustrate their stories, or they can upload pictures from the web, their own photos or their own original artwork. Of particular interest to me, is that even my students, who struggle to write, can keep the oral tradition alive by recording themselves telling the story.
This FREE site allows students to print their written stories, or to submit them for review online. Teachers review the stories and can message feedback to the student. Students can also submit their myths and legends to publish on the site and receive feedback from other readers. The Teacher Resource Center offers lesson ideas and tutorials for teachers and students to use in the classroom and to improve student compositions. I think that my students will enjoy using this digital myth creation site, and I appreciate the chance for my students to safely publish their original compositions.
The final site that I explored and evaluated for use in my classroom is the curation site, Symbaloo. Pinterest is very popular right now. Every time I look at Facebook, someone has pinned something new in Pinterest, so I have looked at it a few times. For me, because I am not a super visual person, Pinterest boards can appear visually cluttered and overwhelming. Symbaloo, on the other hand is visually organized, but it combines words, simple symbols, and color-coding.
http://symbaloo.appappeal.com/ describes Symbaloo as a “customizable start page tool that lets users add all their most important links in a format that is easy to use.” I can see myself, as a teacher, using SymbalooEDU, to compile all of the content sites that I have bookmarked in folders on our favorites bar into a class webmix. I could organize the symbol/word buttons by assigning each to a designated subject area of the grid and color-code each. When students click on any one of the buttons it will take them directly to one of my teacher approved websites. I can then make SymbalooEDU the default start page on our class computers to improve the accessibility of the webmix.
I think that while this curation system is appealing to me, it will be easy for my students to use, and might remind them of the homescreen on a smartphone or tablet. While I cannot let my students randomly explore the Internet for their own favorite websites, I can seek their opinions on whether or not a website should be added to our Symbaloo class webmix, and I can also let the students help to group and organize the buttons in a way that makes sense to the users—to the class.
While I want to make a class webmix with acceptable student site-links, I also plan to make webmixes for myself. For example, a webmix of teacher web tools and widgets that I use as resources for my lessons and workshops, or a disability resources webmix. Symbaloo’s mobile app allows for me to add to or access webmixes even when I am out and about. I have used bookmarking sites before like diigo and delicious, but I like the look and the ease of use of Symbaloo.
Edmodo http://www.edmodo.com/
Legends and Myths http://myths.e2bn.org/
Legends and Myths Teacher Resource Center http://myths.e2bn.org/teachers/#general
Study Blue http://www.studyblue.com/about/2011/09/an-educator%E2%80%99s-virtual-classroom-edmodo-style/
SymbalooEDU http://www.symbalooedu.com/
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@Symbaloo
@SymbalooEDU
Email: mimi@symbaloo.com